Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Under Duress: Hijack Raw Takes Saigon! WWE Responds

The Hijack Raw movement reached its zenich on Monday night in Memphis. The crowd, a roaring, hooting, unrelenting bunch of smartened up hooligans pushed the McMahons to the brink, reminiscent of a previous generation of Americans who made their voices heard over a span of years in the 60's and 70's. The generation of Kent State and the Chicago Democratic Convention. The generation of protest and change that bullied Washington. But their results were marginal compared to these radicals called the WWE Universe. They stormed the Frankenstein castle of Vince McMahon's Stamford headquarters and held the doctor and the monster at the gunpoint of ruthless rhetoric in the form of escalating chants from seats they paid to sit in. Their wave hadn't crested as the previous generation's had. It rolled and rolled and finally capsized McMahon's prized Poseidon. They can sit on a Tuesday morning with their morning Twitter feed and bask in the glory of their revolution. Well done, sirs...

A hijacking. An occupation. It started in Pittsburgh at the Royal Rumble and reached feverish levels of violence in Chicago and Memphis. The fact a Monday Night Raw could even continue was a triumph in the eyes of the corporation. The hooligans were in control. Armed personnel with signs and rhetoric, organized like their own homegrown terrorist cells. The fear was clearly in the eyes of Stephanie McMahon and her husband Triple H. They looked at one another with the fear that their very lives might be in danger if they didn't aqueous to demands of the hooligans. The Authority wasn't naive. They knew what could result and before their eyes flashed the horrific consequences of another bad decision.

Movement towards the ring from the stands. Not members of the Shield, but hordes of the hooligans in recently purchased WWE apparel. They overwhelm the stout security of Memphis' finest. Over the rail. Cole, Lawler, and Layfield try to make sense of it on commentary, but they are the first target. They are ripped away from their seats and beaten by angry teenagers with rolled up programs (also previously bought). They take the ring announcer's table and announce over the mic that WE ARE IN CONTROL! Their spokesperson repeats but has little to say other than that. He points toward the ramp to where lady McMahon and her husband stand. The hordes gather in numbers and move on their position. They have no time to retreat. They are overwhelmed as well. The multi-time world champion reduced to no better than one of his announcers that was recently incapacitated. Saigon has fallen.

The possibility overwhelms the Authority in horror, and they give in. They give in to the sound of thunderous applause. This WWE Universe has never gotten their way. Never. How do they respond? What is to happen to the numerous Twitter accounts that proclaimed a gathering of more of these hooligans in every city hosting Monday Night Raw in the near future before Wrestlemania? Brooklyn is still trending hot. The news of the end of the war has not reached them, like the treaty signing in Ghent that ended the War of 1812 unbeknownst to Andrew Jackson and other patriots in New Orleans. Or maybe they are just choosing to ignore it. We all need to something to be angry about in 2014. It's what keeps the home fires burning even if it all is one big illusion.

Maybe this entire last run of eight weeks has been one big illusion. What was the revolution, really? The WWE Universe wanted Daniel Bryan to be in in the main event of Wrestlemania and to make Batista look as hated as possible. Remarkably they accomplished this, and how? How did they succeed where so many revolts, sit-ins, and occupations have failed throughout all of time? They paid their money and screamed really loud...just like they have for all of these years.

If you looked online through the various hashtags of #hijackraw or #occupyraw you might find otherwise. You might find that the earth has shifted as we know it. You might find that although the hijacking of the hijacking became just another plot point in a storyline, there was a spark and, as Dr. Thompson once said,"a universal sense that we (the WWE Universe) were winning." And they will let you know they won if you try and say anything otherwise. They will say that Daniel Bryan's ascension to a Wrestlemania main event slot was unprecedented based on blind statements that at no point was he apart of any world championship plans; that this angry mob bullied the corporation to their demands.

If anything it gives a sliver of hope to anyone in the next generation of WWE, the field of NXT superstars. If they feel they have all of the skills and the charisma but not getting the push, go to the fans. Sell to the fans and get their support. They will once again buy new programs to roll up and shake angrily with PG words and get behind you, sir or ma'am. But then again, hasn't that always been the case with wrestling? Isn't that how all wrestlers eventually got over? A snowball effect of fan support? I don't know. Zack Ryder is still waiting.

In reality, McMahon's Poseidon never had a wave capsize it. The wave, itself, was an illusion, a mirage on the open water. In reality, just like Thompson said long ago, "you can can go up a steep hill and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high water mark--that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back."